Real Ethics
Subtitle: Rethinking the Foundations of Morality
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: December 17, 2001
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 304
ISBN-13: 9780521006088
Subjects: Ethics & Moral Philosophy; Philosophy; Philosophy / General; History; Ethics; Realism
First sentence: The raw material of ethical reflection is provided by human behaviour as we experience and observe it and as it is recorded directly by historians, journalists, TV cameramen and film-makers, writers and, less directly, by other sorts of 'creative' artists.
Description: John Rist surveys the history of ethics from Plato to the present and offers a vigorous defence of an ethical theory based on a revised version of Platonic realism. In a wide-ranging discussion he examines well-known alternatives to Platonism, in particular--Epicurus, Hobbes, Hume and Kant, as well as contemporary "practical reasoners". His accessible study is enhanced by a strong sense of philosophical history, and will be of interest to students and scholars of ethics.